Holiday apartment
A holiday apartment is generally understood to be a furnished apartment in which guests can spend their vacation for a certain period of time against payment . The German Tourism Association e. V. designates both the type of holiday accommodation and a type of room as a holiday home. The transition to the holiday home is often fluid in holiday resorts.
A holiday apartment can be housed in a building with other holiday apartments or as a self-contained unit with or without its own entrance, it can also be part of a normal residential building . In some holiday apartments, the guest therefore lives in the same house as the landlord.
Furnishing
As a rule, holiday apartments have their own sanitary area with shower or bathtub and toilet and a simple kitchenette or a fully equipped kitchen with cooking utensils. The bedrooms must be equipped with beds and hygienic covers. There must also be a dining area with seating for the specified number of people. Bed linen and towels are not part of the basic equipment. Many holiday apartments also have a balcony or terrace , and some even have gardens.
The quality of the equipment in holiday apartments and other optional services depend on the interests of the landlord and therefore vary widely. The classification of the German Tourism Association ( DTV classification ) with stars serves as an indication of the quality of the property for those looking for accommodation. This assessment is reviewed by the DTV every three years.
In the Netherlands, a comparable rating system (one to five stars according to defined criteria) is awarded by the General Dutch Association for Road Users (ANWB).
Rental costs
Depending on the number of people, inclusive prices for a period are just as common as the pricing per night. Often there is also an exact billing of the additional costs for water, electricity, bed linen, towels etc. as well as the calculation of a final cleaning at a basic price. When specifying the price, however, it is legally stipulated that the price mentioned must include electricity and final cleaning costs. If this does not happen, it is a violation of § 1 of § PAnGV . In addition to the costs that the landlord charges for his services and expenses, there are often additional costs. Agencies usually increase the accommodation price estimated by the landlord in the form of a commission and / or commission. So it happens that the guest often has to pay up to 30% more if he books the holiday home through an agency. Many portals and so-called private landlords therefore often advertise with the terms commission-free and commission-free.
Rental
Apartments, as well as other accommodations of the additional hotel business , are z. B. offered on standalone websites or internet directories. These are intended to bring together interested parties and private landlords. This enables the guest to find out more about the quality of the accommodation and the service of the landlord in advance. The majority of vacation rental bookings are now made on the Internet. The rental of holiday apartments can also be done through a tour operator or travel agency. This method is classic, especially when booking a vacation in well-known tourist vacation regions and when booking package tours. Tourist offices , which publish up-to-date accommodation directories for their region every year, as well as special agencies can also help in arranging holiday homes . Of course, last-minute booking of holiday apartments is also possible.
In many well-known and popular holiday regions, holiday apartments are only rented on a weekly basis due to the high demand. The day of arrival and departure (especially in Germany) is often Saturday . Elsewhere, holiday apartments are also offered for short or long-term stays.
In some federal states of Germany, the conversion of living space into commercial space and thus the misappropriation of an existing apartment as a holiday home is not permitted or requires approval. Some cities have now legally obliged Internet portals to provide municipal authorities with information about providers of holiday apartments.
In building planning law, the term holiday home has been defined in Section 13a of the nationwide building use ordinance since 2017 . Since then, holiday homes have been equated with non-disruptive commercial operations and are therefore generally permitted in small settlement areas and general residential areas, in core, mixed and urban areas. This has removed the previously longstanding legal uncertainty.
Tax liability
In general, the rental of immovable property is not a commercial activity income from commercial operations , but private asset management income from renting and leasing . A room rental is a trade if there are special circumstances which, viewed as a whole, give the rental as a whole the character of an independent, sustainable, profit-driven participation in general economic activity. This is the case if the tenants are provided with essential ancillary services in addition to the use of the premises, such as cleaning the rooms including the sanitary rooms, bed linen and the use of the kitchen and sanitary rooms. These ancillary services, as well as the fact that the premises were typically used by frequently changing people, gives the activity the character of an accommodation business that goes well beyond the usual asset management. Even renting out a single holiday apartment can have a commercial character if the apartment is located in a holiday area in association with a large number of similarly used apartments in a uniform residential complex and is rented to temporary tenants by a holiday service organization, as in a hotel. In addition to sales tax , trade tax in Germany must also be observed.
Special business models
- Holiday homes and apartments are also offered via special timeshare rights ( time sharing ) or the Mitwohnzentrale .
- In holiday complexes, temporary workers are also accommodated in times of low occupancy . One example of this is the accommodation of seasonal workers from Trenkwalder International in the Seepark Kirchheim , who were deployed at Amazon in Bad Hersfeld in 2012 .
Trends
In the meantime, the number of beds in the additional hotel business has significantly exceeded that in the hotels. The main reasons for this are the price-performance ratio. Hotels offer more service, but holiday apartments are much cheaper, especially for several people. For several years, which is trend can be observed that not only the other well-known people rent an apartment together and a residential community set up, but also vacationers who do not know each other. On the one hand, of course, this has cost reasons, but social aspects also play a role.
Studies show that the largest proportion of vacation home vacations by German vacationers continues to be spent in Germany.
In order to counteract the misappropriation of living space for commercial purposes and the vacancy rate ( cold beds ), the conversion into municipalities with a tight housing market may be subject to approval due to state law provisions.
Apartments outside of the German-speaking area
In Canada and the United States , where holiday apartments and especially holiday homes are as widespread as in Europe, apartment hotels have also been offering their services to an increasing extent since the 1970s . These combine temporary living in a fully furnished and equipped apartment with the usual services of a hotel.
In New Zealand , vacation homes are derived from the popular baches . A stream , derived from bachelor pad , was originally a very modest holiday home for the family, mostly located on the beach or in ski areas. Nowadays, a bach , also often called a holiday home , is a detached holiday home. These are mostly offered via internet portals. Holiday homes are enjoying increasing popularity. Since holiday homes are not classified and only in a few places such as B. Queenstown is regulated by the city council, the number of holiday homes in New Zealand can only be roughly estimated. The largest New Zealand internet portals offer around 8000 holiday homes in New Zealand. This indicates a greater density of holiday homes than in Germany, where the largest portals list around 25,000 holiday homes in Germany.
Individual evidence
- ^ ANWB criteria in German
- ↑ Homepage of the ANWB
- ↑ http://www.it-recht-kanzlei.de/Urteil/2751/LG_Muenchen_I/33_O_781607/Preisinformationen_bei_Ferienmietwohnungen.html
- ↑ Touristik Aktuell, April 2011 ( Memento of the original from April 30, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Amazon contract workers: extradited and threatened? February 14, 2013, accessed February 28, 2013 .
- ↑ ADAC holiday trends 2011
- ↑ For example in Berlin: Law on the prohibition of the misappropriation of living space (Misappropriation Law - ZwVbG) of November 29, 2013, GVBl. 2013, 626 and Ordinance on the Prohibition of Misappropriation of Living Space (Disapproval Ordinance-ZwVbVO) of March 4, 2014, GVBl. 2014, 73 or in Baden-Wuerttemberg: Law on the prohibition of misappropriation of living space (Disapproval Prohibition Act - ZwEWG) ( Memento of the original of May 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of December 19, 2013, Journal of Laws of December 30, 2013, 484
